Chloe Lamford’s set presents a box in the Jerwood Downstairs surrounded by scaffolding, which contains the kind of modern, expensive, prefab apartment you see in every part of Central London. It’s typical, and typically furnished, and the performance notes specify that the ‘generic art’ on the walls looks like it’s been ‘chosen by a property […]
I like the elephantine plays. That’s why I went to this, and because of the Tony, and because of the premise. A combo of all. What else do I have to go on? Maybe I should read scripts before applying for press tickets. Maybe. I don’t think Oslo is that elephantine, actually. And it certainly […]
I chose Emergency Chorus’ Celebration to break my review-fast because it exemplifies what I’ve missed and what I’m missing. I mean, God, what the hell have I sidestepped in Central London alone these past months? What I’ve missed: Celebration was born of the NSDF — the National Student Drama Festival — and I can’t tell […]
Follies is, in one way, exactly what you might expect from a 1971 work by the noted musical dramatist Stephen Sondheim, in that it’s a true spectacle, with lyrics that bounce effortlessly off its superb score, and huge, colourful and bombastic set-pieces that leave the audience in awe. On the other hand, the latest revival […]
Late Night, tell-it-how-it-is radio — a premise with the potential for shocking, humorous and meaningful dialogue, but Eric Bogosian’s play lacks depth and originality, with this production feeling in turns forced and unnatural. Barry has risen to fame due to the success of his listener phone-in show, and we join him along with his production […]
One afternoon in 1998, the awkward 12 year-old that was me trudged home from middle school to discover a gift sitting on the table. A children’s librarian had recommended that my mother give my sister and I a copy of a brand new novel that she had read and loved. Although I had never heard […]
Jason Robert Brown is one of the most well-respected composers working in musical theatre today. His credits include Songs for a New World, The Last Five Years and Parade (my personal favourite musical). In 2007, he premiered a show called 13, a musical written for a cast consisting completely of, as the name suggests, 13-year-olds. […]
The big joke of Ink is that a play about a dumb, sordid newspaper is itself dumb and sordid. The audience doesn’t realise that, Rupert Goold doesn’t, James Graham doesn’t. But it is. Dumb. Sordid. Describing a play as ‘sordid’ makes me sound puritan. But it’s not the content that’s sordid, although Ink is about […]